The Office of the Attorney General and Ministry of Justice have clarified the statutory mandates of the National Lottery Authority (NLA) and the Gaming Commission, a statement from the NLA has indicated.
According to the statement – which followed the Office of the Attorney General and Ministry of Justice’s advice dated August 22, 2022 – only the National Lottery Authority is mandated to operate lottery in the country.
It added that the Gaming Commission’s mandate as provided by the establishing Act, Act 721, relates to games of chance, which are not lotteries in nature.
“The Judgments in the cases: ‘The Republic vs. Gaming Commission (Suit No. MISC/19/2012), Fidelity Bank Ltd., Global Media Alliance vs. National Lottery Authority (Suit NO. OCC/38/2011) and Gaming Commission vs. National Lottery Authority & 8 ORS (Suit No. OCC/89/14)’, have clearly determined that NLA is the only Authority mandated to operate lottery in Ghana (Section 2(2) of ACT 722).
“It is in respect of these determinations by the Court in the case of The Republic vs. Gaming Commission (Suit No. MISC/19/2012) that the learned Judge made the following order(s) restraining the Respondents (Gaming Commission) ‘… and any official of the Gaming Commission from further issuing purported permits or licences that allow private enterprises to set up schemes for alleged participation in draws for prizes through obtaining a prior qualification,” the statement noted.
It added that from the Court’s decisions, a lottery “is a scheme for distributing prizes from the drawing lots based on numbers; or numbered qualification obtained after patronising the interested parties’ business; and in the case of Max Mart and Samsung, sending texts to particular numbers. In a nutshell, any scheme for the distribution of prizes by lot or chance is a lottery”.
Therefore, “In accordance with the advice of the Attorney General and Minister for Justice, NLA has the sole statutory mandate (to the exclusion of all others) to regulate all consumer promotional schemes with elements of chance – raffles, draws, points-based selection criteria, etc.”
